EDITORIAL : END GERRYMANDERING; VALLEY NEEDS TO FIGHT FOR FAIR REPRESENTATION ON THE L.A. CITY COUNCIL.

THE ``Over the Hill Gang'' that controls the Los Angeles City Council has long treated the San Fernando Valley as its own cash cow - a source of tax dollars to pay for policies, politics and politicians that are often unpopular among Valley voters.

Similarly, the Valley has been used as a source of warm bodies whose districts can be carved up to provide the required number of residents in each council district - while weakening Valley political influence. This allows council members on the other side of the Santa Monica Mountains to keep their districts more or less intact, and thus save their political hides, regardless of how growth occurs in the city.

It wasn't always that way.

Several decades ago, after population growth dictated additional representation for the Valley, two council districts on the other side of the Santa Monicas - the 7th and 12th - were moved to the Valley, lock, stock and barrel because that's where people were moving in droves.

That guaranteed the election of Valley residents to represent Valley communities, and forced them to give the Valley their undivided interest - or face the consequences at the polls.

What happened then, however, was the exception rather than the rule. Most of the time, redistricting is more about the political survival of incumbents than strengthening representative democracy.

Consider what happened a dozen years ago.

The council was faced with a federal civil-rights lawsuit to force the city to create a new Eastside district with a Latino majority. The council was prepared to do the logical thing and create the new district at the expense of the 13th District in the Hollywood area when Howard Finn, who represented the 1st District in the East Valley, died.

That changed everything. The 1st District, lacking an incumbent to protect it, became the sacrificial lamb to settle the lawsuit. Meanwhile, the council extended the boundaries of several districts over the mountains so they would have enough residents to meet minimum redistricting requirements.

And as a result, the Valley was carved up into seven districts. Four of them - the 2nd, 3rd, 7th and 12th - are entirely within the Valley. The rest of the Valley's residents live in the 4th, 5th and 11th districts and are represented by outsiders.

One of the consequences of this gerrymandering is that the Valley receives the undivided attention of only four members of the council. This problem is especially acute in Van Nuys, which was carved up six ways to protect incumbent council members.

This is intolerable. The time has come for Valley residents to win back their share of the political pie by preparing for council redistricting, which will occur after the 2000 census.

One approach is to urge members of the two charter reform commissions to support charter changes requiring that community boundaries be taken into consideration when districts lines are redrawn. Another is to make redistricting a major issue during the 1999 council elections.

Finally, there's the last resort which those who hold disproportionate power in this city ought to take seriously.

It's called secession and the political disenfranchisement of the people of the San Fernando Valley may be the single-most important abuse that is driving the movement.